Silent City

Carol Stone is a private eye, a hard boiled detective living in the shadows of society, bringing light into dark places and living by her own moral code. … Or at least she’d like to think that. Silent City is the story of a woman trying to reinvent herself in the midst of a life that has been less than accommodating. In Carol’s case, it involves becoming a private investigator and suddenly having the opportunity to solve a case worthy of all the crime novels she grew up on. She faces a challenge that no one around her seems to think she can do given her lack of training, her lack of experience, and her lack of hearing.

Carol Stone, the private eye of Silent City, subverts not only the expectations of the other characters, but of the audience as well. She’s a deaf woman trying to operate in the hearing world, a world that undervalues her abilities, misunderstands her limitations, and minimizes her potential. The play explores the dismissal of those who communicate differently, either due to physical or cultural divergence. From a technical side, the play utilizes a complex bilingualism as dialogue is offered through a unique blend of spoken and signed language. Silent City is not, however, a play about being deaf. It is rather a play in which cultures collide, in which deafness is a powerful factor of the main character’s existence, but the story itself is about personal ambition, self-identity, and compassion.

About the Playwright

Dan Wilson is the author of Just One More Game, Harvesting the Lost, Sweetie Tanya: the Demon Barista of Valencia Street, Vagina Dentata, 411, and In a Distant Country. He is also the author of the one-acts All That and a Box of Donuts; Get it? Got it. Good!; and Pinch. His even shorter playlets for churches and children’s groups have been performed all over the world. He is a co-founder, producer, and a performer for Radiostar Improv, which is a podcast of wholly improvised plays. Radiostar Improv has performed live at the SF Fringe Festival, the SF Improv Festival, and at various venues around the SF Bay Area.